


Newt and Dad

by puff22_2001



Series: Little Family [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Canon Disabled Character, Disabled Character, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kid Fic, Kid Hermann, Kid Newt, Mental Health Issues, Neurodiversity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-14 22:33:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1281235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puff22_2001/pseuds/puff22_2001
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt learns that some love is forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Newt and Dad

**Author's Note:**

  * For [telm_393](https://archiveofourown.org/users/telm_393/gifts).



> I absolutely loved telm_393's "Little Ghosts" story, so I wrote two sequels! I strongly recommend reading the original story before reading either this piece or "Hermann and Mom" or else you will lose a lot of lovely background to this work.

“Mooom!” Newt called out across the house. Mako quickly walked into Newt's room from the kitchen and surveyed the scene.

“What did you do to your robot?” Mako held back a laugh as Newt, spattered in bright blue paint, held up what had once been a respectable robot toy. Now covered in poster paints, it looked more like the love child of Godzilla and the Terminator.

“Kaiju-bot! Where’s Herm and Raleigh? I wanna show them!” Newt exclaimed. He didn’t notice the look of sadness that passed over Mako’s delicate features, but he did hear the softness of her voice.

“They're working on Hermann’s homework, so you should wait to show them.” Newt frowned in annoyance. Raleigh was always with _Hermann_ , it felt like. When they’d first been mysteriously de-aged the year before, Hermann had gravitated to Mako. Newt found himself a willing playmate in Raleigh. But lately things had shifted and it bugged Newt. He wanted everyone to be _his_ family and friends! Hermann had to share—he still _had_ a family out there somewhere!

Newt’s frown turned into a scowl and he tossed his creation to the side without care before pulling the poster paints back to him. He didn’t look up as he answered Mako, and his voice held only a tiny quiver.

“Nah, I’ll just show them whenever.” Mako left with a quiet note about dinner, and Newt continued on his tattoos. Hermann called them stupid and said Newt would have to bathe before school on Monday. Newt insisted that he'd finish them before then so Raleigh could get pictures.

 _Raleigh_ was the issue, Newt thought as he painted in what he remembered of Raiju from his history book. They hadn’t told Newt the truth when they’d adopted him. That his father and uncle were dead. That his mother never came to get him. That Hermann’s whole family almost was still alive and Newt’s only connection to his past didn’t even know that he was a kid again.

He’d googled it all, of course. He'd wondered about his past when they'd finally settled into family life. Mako and Raleigh hadn’t told him anything and Newt couldn't believe that his father would abandon him. Jacob Geiszler was a loving man and he and Ilia had done the best they could with Newt, their manic little boy.

Newt had gone into a full-blown panic attack when he’d read his Wikipedia article. Everyone had told him and Hermann their cover story, so it came as no surprise that it said that he'd disappeared. Nothing prepared him for the scant notation that Jacob Geiszler had succumbed to lung cancer and the Ilia Geiszler had fallen to the kaiju.

They’d taken him to the emergency room, which just made everything worse. Even after the drugs kicked in and Newt was finally calm enough to go home, the truth broke his heart. The tiny biologist had spent an entire week in his room, subsisting on the many snacks hidden about. Everyone in the family tried to reach him and Newt’s only answer was a shrill screech to go away. He didn’t tell anyone what he’d found, not even Hermann (though his adopted brother had asked repeatedly).

 _Raleigh had lied._ Raleigh, his best grown-up friend, hadn’t told him that his family was gone. Mako had lied too, but moms did that. And at least Mako hadn’t left yet like his birth mom. But dads told you the truth, even when it hurt. Even if you were going to the doctor for the fourth time that month and you might have to stop school and why is everything in your head so _easy_ but makes everything so _hard_ —even then, you knew where you stood with dads.

  
Raleigh had lied and Newt shied away without even thinking of it. And now, when a little of the anger had melted into sorrow and Newt needed his dad, he didn’t have _any_.

“Hey, Kiddo! Mako said you had something to show Hermann and me. Hermann’s helping in the kitchen, but I couldn’t wait!” Newt startled and looked back towards the door. Raleigh stood there, easy rapport in his stance, but Newt was no slouch. He could tell a wary adult when he saw one. He’d seen more than enough in his two lives.

“It’s over there.” Newt muttered, concentrating on his tattoos. Raleigh clucked his tongue as he moved to pick up the toy.

“Well, that’s a pretty good Otachi-bot! How’d you get the blue right?”

“You can tell that it’s Otachi?” Newt asked with enthusiasm, forgetting for a moment his pain. Raleigh moved the arms a bit to loosen the drying paint and grinned.

“Only three people ever saw Otachi up close and personal. Mako, you, and me.” Newt had heard the story of the Canceled Apocalypse. He’d completely forgotten that Mako and Raleigh had been the ones to save him from the monstrous Otachi.

“Yeah! We’re special!” Newt clung to his paints, smudged his shirt—already a disaster—and squeaked.

“Exactly. Did you want to play a bit before dinner?” The sudden invitation jarred Newt from his happiness. Putting the poster paints down on the paper mat with care, he shrugged.

“I guess.”

“Or we could talk.” Raleigh offered as a casual aside as he had the play. Newt shook his head, but his eyes began to prick with tears. He’d always been a crier and it just egged the bullies on in both childhoods. Jacob and Ilia protected him as best as they could, but where were they now when Newt needed them again?

“You lied.” Newt whispered, abrupt as ever. “About my dad and my uncle.” Raleigh’s face lit up with both recognition and guilt.

“Oh, Newt.” Raleigh's voice was soft as he sat down by Newt, dropping the toy to the side, and held out his arms in a silent invitation for a hug. Newt shook his head with violence again before flinging himself into Raleigh and sobbing. Raleigh held the boy until Newt’s weeping quieted enough to speak, waving away Mako and Hermann as they came to check on them.

“I _did_ lie, Newt. I try not to do that, and it was wrong of me.” Raleigh said as Newt wiped his nose on his grubby shirt, getting red paint all on his face. It looked far too much like the night that he had drifted alone and almost died. Raleigh wiped the scarlet away with his own shirt and the paint water nearby. “But we thought it would be best for you. We didn’t want to upset you when you were already so fragile.”

“Why doesn’t anyone want me?” Newt exclaimed as if he’d not heard Raleigh at all. The sheer agonized rage in his voice shook Raleigh and brought back memories of his own abandonment in youth and adulthood.

“People want you, Newt.”

“No, _they don’t_! Mom left! Dad and Ilia died! Even my goldfish died.” Raleigh might have laughed at the absurd juxtaposition if Newt hadn’t been so scarred. “I’m really smart and I’m cute and I’m passionate! That was on my report card last semester, remember? But nobody wants me! They even _die_ to get away from me!”

“No, Newt. People want you.” Raleigh forced Newt’s face as gently as possible back to his own. “Mako and I want you. Hermann wants you. Everyone at the Shatterdome wants you.”

“You only took me because I had nowhere to go. You wanted _Hermann_.” Newt’s bitterness was like a knife in the air.

“That’s not true! Newt, you don’t know, but my dad left my brother and me just like your mom left you! My mom died from lung cancer, too!” Raleigh could feel his chest restricting with the memories but pressed on.” And Yancy, the only one I thought would never leave, died. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want me and it didn’t mean that other people couldn’t want me.”

Newt sniffled as the tears continued to leak out of his eyes. Luckily, it was his post-attack weeping and not the heart-wrenching sobs from earlier. Raleigh took a deep breath and continued with hope. “We wanted Hermann, that’s true. His family was terrible to him and he needed parents who would love him.” Newt nodded with vigor. Hermann had told Newt the truth when they’d finally breached each other’s walls. “But we wanted you, too. _I_ wanted you too. You reminded me of my self, looking for a home. I knew that I wanted you.”

“But what if you—you die or leave me? I don’t want anyone else to leave me.” Newt said so softly and so unlike Newt.

“Newt, I _am_ going to die. Even if it’s years from now when I’m old and grey and you and Hermann have grandbabies for Mako and me, I’m going to go.” Newt hugged Raleigh tight against him and shielded his face. Raleigh checked for ears and made sure that Newt could hear before he continued. “But I will always, always love and want you. You’re so smart and cute and passionate, and you’re just the kind of kid I want.”

“Really?”

“Raleigh.” It took a moment for Newt to get the pun, but then riotous laughter erupted from the small child. If he hadn’t heard it many, many times before, Raleigh would have never thought such a tiny boy could make such a noise.

“What about Hermann?” Newt asked when he finally calmed down. “He’s not like me at all.”

“I have discerning tastes for my progeny. I need to sample the many flavors.” Raleigh said in the snootiest tone he could muster. Newt laughed again, though it was weak and tired.

“So what about dinner and a movie? You and Hermann can pick if you don’t argue.” Raleigh said as he picked Newt up and slung him over his shoulders. Newt yawned, spent from his emotions.

“OK, Dad.”

Raleigh had to force himself not to react. Newt’s sleepy smile over his shoulder was angelic. He could hear Mako and Hermann giggling in the kitchen, having heard Newt’s laughter. Their family was happy, happier than his own childhood had ever been.

“OK, Son.”


End file.
